Jewish family flees Delaware school district's aggressive Ch

Jewish family flees Delaware school district's aggressive Christianity
by JewsOnFirst.org, June 28, 2006

A large Delaware school district promoted Christianity so aggressively that a Jewish family felt it necessary to move to Wilmington, two hours away, because they feared retaliation for filing a lawsuit. The religion (if any) of a second family in the lawsuit is not known, because they're suing as Jane and John Doe; they also fear retaliation. Both families are asking relief from "state-sponsored religion."

~snip
Among numerous specific examples in the complaint was what happened at plaintiff Samantha Dobrich’s graduation in 2004 from the district’s high school. She was the only Jewish student in her graduating class. The complaint relates that local pastor, Jerry Fike, in his invocation, followed requests for “our heavenly Father’s” guidance for the graduates with:

I also pray for one specific student, that You be with her and guide her in the path that You have for her. And we ask all these things in Jesus’ name

Rab. How did you find that web page. I read the first three or four paragraphs. This is depressing. Do you think this really went down the way that it is being reported in this Jewish article? Christians singling a jew out like that in a public prayer? hm.

I detect a twinge of hyperbole/persecution complex but who knows. If it is true, it is incredibly dispicable. Thanks for the link.

That story is grim indeed. I wondered what the news has been since that graduation in 2004, so I asked Google.
has an article dated just two weeks ago from a Frederick County website.

The Dobriches’ son Alex, then in the sixth grade, rose up to make a simple statement - “I feel bad when kids in class
call me Jewboy” - but the local vultures hooted at him, with one attender screaming at the young boy
to “take your yarmulke off.”

Local politicians rose and further blasted away at the Dobriches, with one former school board member even
hinting that they might “disappear.” References to the
Ku Klux Klan began to emerge in the threats.

The talk-radio crowd got louder, shriller, and bolder. Young Alex
was routinely called a “Christ-killer” and began hiding his
yarmulke for fear of his personal safety. The family began facing more and more threats.

A well-trafficked right-wing website published the Dobriches’
names, home address, and telephone number, instigating even more smothering harassment of the Jewish family.

The Dobriches purchased a second home in Wilmington to protect their children, but eventually the
financial drain forced the family to sell the Indian River home. Samantha dropped out of college
and lapsed into depression. The Dobriches (along with the other family) filed their complaint describing
the above incidents and others. The lawsuit is pending.

There’s a discussion of the issue here:
Our Constitutional system generally protects the rights of minorities from pure democracy and the resulting tyranny of the
majority. We’ll see how it works out in the Dobrich case.

In February 2006, the Indian River District School Board unanimously rejected a six-figure settlement offer from the lawyers of the two families in a public meeting. The former school board president told the media, “Our court case, where we have been standing up to the ACLU, provides the opportunity for the federal government to permanently uphold my right not to be treated as a second class citizen, or to have to move to the back of the bus.”

Attorney Thomas Allingham, who represents the Dobrich family, said that the plaintiffs remained open to the possibility that the case could be settled. But the case is set for trial in June 2007 in Wilmington.

Nedd Kareiva’s website, StoptheACLU.org, remained under the radar for four months after he posted the personal contact information of the Dobrich family. It wasn’t until July 1, 2006 that a blog called Dispatches from the Culture Wars picked up the story and a commenter noted that StoptheACLU.org had posted the Dobrich family’s home address and phone number.